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Oh, that was a rubbish evening

Sarah's got involved with the Society for Creative Anachronism (that's not the rubbish bit), and this evening went to a meeting of (some of) their minstrels. Because the meeting place is not really conducive to her getting the coach back home, nor realistically (or at least easily/quickly) the tube & train, she asked if I could pop down there and pick her up. It's in Bounds Green, north London. About a 35 minute drive. Should be dead simple, right?

Well, yeah, except the bit where I'm pootling down the M1 and I get a warning alarm that the engine's overheating...

Pull up on the hard shoulder, let it cool down a bit, make it as far as London Gateway services, let it cool down a lot, and make it down to Bounds Green travelling nice and slow (which isn't that difficult when you're off the M1), all the while silently cursing the fact that I've left my 'phone at home whilst watching the temperature gauge crawl upwards...

Finally make it down to Sarah, and she gets us back to London Gateway, where using what resources we've got we ascertain that the problem is probably as simple as the water's run out, so I get a £2:40 bottle of Vittel from Smiths (only the best for our Peggy) and Sarah fills her up. Apparently we should use an antifreeze/water mix, but we don't have antifreeze and Sarah's not prepared to buy it for the overinflated price they're likely to charge at motorway services.

The rest of the journey is one of cautiously testing the limits of the car, checking to see if the temperature gauge has risen anywhere above 90 (it didn't), both of us having nightmarish flashbacks to the last time something like this happened (one December evening, c.2005, Sarah still had the Mini, it overheated in the middle of some hideous traffic trying to get out of Gallions Reach...must have taken about three hours to get to a nearby filling station, where we pulled up, got in touch with the rescue people, and when they arrived they and Sarah determined there was a good possibility that the head gasket had blown; it hadn't, but going to Chorleywood in a low loader with the Mini on the back wasn't exactly how we'd intended to spend that evening...).

Finally made it home tonight at about 10:30pm. A lot later than I'd hoped. But at least we made it home...

Sarah meeting with the SCA minstrels will be a regular thing. Hopefully the car playing silly buggers won't be...